THE Primary Industries Ministry targets a 10% increase in the use of palm oil and its products through the “Sayangi Sawitku” campaign, said its minister Teresa Kok.

Kok said local use of palm oil products currently stood at 20% while about 80% was for export markets.

“We urge manufacturers of all downstream palm oil products to place the ‘Sayangi Sawitku’ campaign label on their products to let consumers know that (the products) are made of palm oil,” she said during a question-and-answer session with companies under the Cooking Oil Stabilisation Scheme (COSS) in Kuala Lumpur today.

Earlier in her speech, Kok said that since the pre-launch of the national-level “Sayangi Sawitku” campaign, various activities and programmes had been carried out with locals and students from the different schools, colleges, and universities.

“The objective of this campaign is to cultivate a spirit of love and pride towards Malaysian palm oil as well as an appreciation of the commodity’s contribution towards the economy,” she added.

Kok said the mandatory implementation of the SCCS-Supply Chain Certification Standard for palm oil processing facilities involved with COSS was set for June 30.

“Palm oil processing facilities that are not involved with COSS need to get the SCCS certification before December 31,” she said.

Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said the government had allocated RM600 million this year to subsidise cooking oil.

“The allocation involved 60,000 metric tonnes, or 3.69% of subsidised cooking oil, involving 280 cooking oil packages under the COSS scheme nationwide.

“The government will give them a 60 sen subsidy for every kilogramme of RM2.50 cooking oil packets,” he said. – Bernama, March 13, 2019.